The first 1/4 or so is very hard to get into, and the whole thing feels a bit derivative, but I enjoyed the story in the last 3/4 ( )

'Unconquerable Sun' is everything a space opera should be. It has the Military SF tropes, the imperial politics and intrigue, the millennia-long history of constant conflict between human societies living on multiple worlds connected by technology no one really understands left behind by a race no one has ever seen, the diverse societies that draw heavily on Asian and European cultures, the space and weapons hardware well in advance of our own and an intricate and slow-reveal plot, punctuated with good action scenes.

Yet what makes 'The Unconquerable Sun' fly is that the story is told through the eyes of three strong young women, each of whom is at the start of a long path towards their chosen goals - Ruler, Engineer, Pilot and none of whom have yet understood the big picture that will shape their lives.

The 'Sun' of the title is the young mixed-race Heir to the throne: charismatic, determined, fearless, ruthless, gay and totally convinced of her right to rule. In counterpoint to her, we have a daughter of one of the great houses who has rejected the role her family want her to play, assumed a false identity and spent five years at a leading military academy. Finally there is a woman we meet only in chapters entitled 'Dispatches From The Enemy'. She has four arms, the remnants of a hard shell, and is the daughter of an impoverished single mother and has the top scores of any pilot going through training. Her desire is simply to do her job well but things keep happening that suggest that someone somewhere has different plans for her. The paths of all three women cross in an unexpected war that they all must fight in.

This is a fairly long book (528 pages / 17 hours 43 minutes) yet it flew by as I lost myself to the story. I admired the skill with which Kate Elliott kept up the forward momentum of the story while deepening my interest in the characters, keeping me occupied with life-threatening action and still giving me time to wonder about the unanswered questions like how do the interstellar gates really work and why did some of them stop working and who are The Riders and why are the Banner Soldiers engineered so differently and ...

There were several fresh ideas in the book that kept my attention: the way senior people have 'Companions' from the main families, most of who stay with them from childhood onwards; the way the would-be-ruler manipulates social media to gain support; the depiction of how badly refugees are treated and the threat that will eventually pose to the society that treats them that way; the grim, unheroic, body-shattering, blood-spilling, fear-inducing way that the battle stories are told.

This first book was a wild ride that laid the foundations for the series, leaving me hungry for the next book, 'Furious Heaven' (which comes out in 2023) without inflicting a cliffhanger ending on me. ( )

A bit too long but I was engaged with the characters. Some of them, anyway. ( )

Initially, I was intimidated at the sheer length of the book (covid brain) and excited about gender-swapped Alexander the Great in space, because how cool is that? Once I got into it, I really enjoyed it -- found myself wanting more time to spend with it. I'm impressed that Kate Elliott's writing has developed to this point -- she's always told a great story, but the epic scale is new. Love the space heists, the boy-band fame of the companions and how they use it. Had some issues with Eirene's temper tantrums -- hard to imagine a leader getting away with that sort of thing. Good times. I'm not sure I will be able to hold on to the epic number of people and plots to engage with a second or third book, but this one was good.

Advanced Reader's copy provided by Edelweiss. ( )

Very few books managed to hold my attention this year, so it’s no shame to Unconquerable Sun that I found myself frustrated at times by its 500+ pages – mostly during the slow opening act, which is heavy on exposition. But the supporting characters – tart-tongued Persephone Lee, determined to disappoint her family; mysterious cee-cee Tiana, whose secrets kept me guessing until the end – rapidly won me over and kept me engaged until the plot pot bubbled over.

And Unconquerable Sun is a book in which I find more to admire the longer I reflect on it. It’s expertly constructed, layered with intrigue and nuance. I loved that the Companions' journey forces Sun to look past the propaganda and acknowledge the inequities of Chaonian society. I appreciated that none of the societies were monoliths, each preoccupied by different ideologies and riven with different prejudices. There’s so much seeded here that I look forward to finding out more about: the mysteries of the beacon builders, the dark secrets of the Lee family, the biotech of the Phene Empire.

If I was sometimes distracted by its historical inspirations, that’s entirely my own fault. I wanted to be able to admire how Kate Elliott has rewoven history into her new context, but I haven’t read up on Alexander the Great since I was 14. Instead, I had to settle for reading it as fictional space opera.

And on that score, Unconquerable Sun succeeds beautifully.

Side-note: key arcs are all closed out (so this can be read as a stand alone) whilst neatly setting up characters and conflicts for future books.

Full review

I received a free copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review ( )